The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-05-13

ceased to build in it, the rats deserted
It, men ceased to speak OF It. no one
went near it, and so it in O way cied
of. 1t is there still."
: Then there was talk about what
it was, ii anything among the old
boys, OF whom the two from Michigan
had never visited the place.
"The fact is" said r., "a few thou
sand or hundred thousand years ago,
we were cave and river drift men. Dig
ger Indians, in fact, from which the
white man never wholly escaped.
We've progressed only in streaks. Our
cave side, Digger part, at times pre-.
dominates. Every one has large
share of primitive night. This thing
rot Itself started as fungus OF this
ground. Toadstools always come up
in the night. The first we know OF
them we find them fully grown in the
morning. This thing, once started,
lived on this shady, damp, and for all
foolishness, rich human soil"
Dan agreed with him in the main,
though both admitted that they had
heard the voice. Capt. John differed
with them. Monroe was undecided;
said he had some OF the soil in which
toadstools might grow. Theo said
that the weight OF evidence was in ia
vor OF some unusual visitation, and
wished he had been there in the day OF
it.
"Oh, it is as much there now as it
ever was" said r. "Ill bet hay
stock against a new version OF the Old
Testament that if we 20 there now
you'll hear the cattle calls, or think
you do. This is the very witching
hour and the very season for it,"
"Done," cried Theo. "Let us +
boys"
1t was agreed to at once. The ket-
ties were filed with cold sap, the fire
pulled away so that no harm might
occur to the partly reduced syrup, and
the party moved toward the open
ground.
"Your wager" said Dan to r., "is
hardly fair. II Theodore denies hear.
ing or seeing, you lose"
"Oh, yor can trust Seven Day
Baptist" called out William, which
provoked small laugh.
otis just the night for ghosts" said
Capt. John, looking about.
He was right. The moon in its Sec
ond quarter furnished all the light.
The sky was hecked with small, high
up, slow moving clouds, and to fancy
quickened by the eerie tale just told,
the air seemed filled with fitting shad-
ows and phantoms. 'The chances
are all against me-" SAID Theo, who
had Joined in the small laugh, recur-
ring to Dams remark. This whole
old region is filled with ghosts.
can't take a step without soaring
up broods and hocks OF the old time
memories, spirits OF the departed.
This morning | vent out into the
south woods, where Decide and used
to hunt, 90 FOR chestnuts, loaf and
play. The woods are haunted. |
could not breathe-was choked, suffo-
Gated. rushed out into the open
Helds, and as / turned and looked
back I could almost see human forms
standing under the trees, reckoning to
me-"
"Oh, you'll find him all right" said
Monroe in a reassuring voice.
The dear old region had been noted
famous, III a sad way, for the num-
Der of its suicides. 1t was inevitable
that the list should be gone over with
as they leisurely passed over the high
rolling ground on their way to the
haunted run half mile away.
1t stood solitary on n gentle east
ern slope, surrounded hidden, in
iact-by trees and small growths.
which they approached on its
dark side, now black in contrast with
the gray landscape dimly lit by the
slender moon. Prepared, expectant,
their voices fell low, and ceased as
they passed the east side OF the trees
and growths to the front on the south
side. The outline was awry, the
large doors ajar, warped and partly
fallen, the roof rotten and in several
places open-decay, desertion and ut
ter silence seemed to brood over the
ruins.
Slowly they advanced, and sudden
" halted, as by an electric impulse.
Even X. seemed taken by surprise,
while the hair OF the strangers they
felt lifting itself on their scalps.
Was it common illusion OF the
senses? Was it real voice2 While
in the gruesome presence it was real.
"What did / tell your" whispered X.
"By the holies," breathed Theo, an
they listened to the once familiar ac-
cent, the old calls, and names, for .
minute or two and then r. led the way
to the back opening OF the hall unhinged
doors. They gained the floor, and in
the darkness, not so dense under the
openings OF the roof but that inside,
the heavy timbers, the posts, huge
hen ma and aca ffolds dark and pallnMa